Indiana Fever choose Caitlin Clark as first pick in WNBA Draft

Caitlin Clark, the College of Iowa sensation and NCAA Division I all-time main scorer, was picked first within the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever.

Ms Clark, who helped carry the Hawkeyes to the nationwide championship ultimate this yr, was broadly anticipated to be chosen as first decide.

In an interview after taking the stage on Monday at New York Metropolis’s Brooklyn Academy of Music to simply accept her new jersey, Ms Clark advised ESPN she was “grateful” to be getting into the WNBA, after foregoing her fifth yr of faculty eligibility to enter the draft.

“I’ve dreamed of this second since I used to be in 2nd grade,” the Iowa native stated. “It’s taken numerous arduous work, numerous ups and downs, however greater than something I’m simply attempting to soak it in.”

“I advised my mother earlier than this, “I earned it,” and that’s why I’m so pleased with it,” she added.

Expectations will probably be excessive for Ms Clark, who holds the NCAA’s all-time scoring and help data for women and men.

The Fever definitely hope she’ll proceed her sensational run when she arrives in Indianapolis. The staff hasn’t been to the playoffs in practically a decade.

After the pointguard’s decide was introduced, gamers from the NBA’s Indiana Pacers squad shared a video on X welcoming Ms Clark to the state.

The 22-year-old from West Des Moines, Iowa, is credited with serving to improve viewership for NCAA womens’s basketball.

Throughout final month’s NCAA match, Ms Caitlin’s deadly taking pictures potential and sharp passes helped entice record-setting numbers of viewers.

The ultimate between Iowa and South Carolina attracted a peak of 24 million viewers, topping the lads’s D1 ultimate viewers by thousands and thousands and attracting probably the most viewers of any school basketball recreation since 2019.

The quarterfinal and semifinal legs of the match additionally broke data for girls’s school basketball viewership.

It is a breaking information story and will probably be up to date with new info.